Teen Party (extremely low budget) help needed.

Hello my oldest daughter birthday is In December she will be 15. We are going to rent a hotel room for some of her friends(4-5) and us. I want to have a mini party before we head off to the hotel, around 10 people max. Any one have any ideas what we can do. My budget is $100 food and decor. We cant spend as much because we are planning our youngerst daughter birthday too (1st birthday) and we are going to celebrate my daughter sweet sixteen next year(big party).

Are you looking for ideas for the mini party before the hotel? I love the idea of the hotel for the party. When I was younger, I used to enjoy birthday parties with my friends at the hotel pool, just hanging out and being silly.

For the pre-party for around 10 people, you could probably do a taco bar or something and keep it low cost. Just make a bunch of taco meat and toppings and have people make their own tacos. Sounds delicious, but maybe thats because I love tacos. 🙂

My parents booked my friends and I a hotel room when I turned 13 and it was so much fun. It was a suite with separate rooms if that makes sense so that they were able to stay with us, but we still felt very “grown up”. I definitely think that’s a great idea and I’m sure your daughter and her friends will love it!

What about doing some chocolate fondue before heading to the hotel? It’s so yummy and really fun and definitely doesn’t have to be expensive (: My favourite things to dip are strawberries and kiwi. Also, check out shopsweetlulu.com for party decor! They have a ton of cheap but really cute birthday supplies, tissue decor, giant balloons, noisemakers, dishes, poms, paper straws, cupcake decorations, garlands, etc. It’s all super pretty and not typical birthday party decor. I actually got a lot of wedding decor from there and I highly recommend it!

@brokeninnj: At that age my daughters did either (a) Pizza + DVDs sleepover, or (b) picnic in a park.

So are you saying 5 friends are there for only half the party, and then the other 5 go off to the hotel room? Tread carefully, this can lead to hurt feelings. It might be better (and cheaper) to just have all 10 at your house for a sleepover. (Unless the 5 who don’t go are boys; it’s perfectly ok to say goodnight to the boys and have a girls’ sleepover). (EDIT: OK, I see, they’re relatives – that’s ok too then).

I’d drop the hotel room (Saves you money right there), drop the decorations (more money saved) and splurge on food and goodies for the friends (Like packages of candy, or little birthday kazoos/bubbles they can blow at each other)

As an ex-15 year old, I didn’t care about decorations, I cared about food and fun.

Tell them to bring sleeping bags and let them sleep on the floor and watch TV.

If the other people at the “pre party” are family you could still do minimal decorations, some balloons and a happy birthday banner would be cheap, then have some food and a cake. Then for a bunch of teenage girls at the hotel just get snack fooda and some movies and they will entertain themselves.

Are you looking to do a full meal? Then for a birthday something low key like barbecue could work and still be a lite more upscale than the traditional hot dogs and burgers. If not at meal time put out fruit and veggie trays with a variety of dips, chips, and a few hot appetizers like pigs in a blanket or cocktail weiners on toothpick (you can smother them in barbecue sauce or make a more decadent sauce like pineapple salsa or something from scratch).

I also agree with PPs on a taco bar- it can be cheap if you stick to basic items like ground beef, beans, cheese, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and sauce. Other toppings are totally optional and can be added based on your budget. It’s still a crowd pleaser because everyone can customize it themselves.